I would inquire at the U.S. consulate or with the INS at a border station.

Heh, on a lark I did their online test to see whether I was eligible to get a green card. It was amusing - for all the questions they asked, it looked like I was giving terrible answers.

No, I am not a resident or citizen.

No, I have no American relatives or a spouse who can sponsor me.

I meet the criteria for "foreign unskilled worker" on their list of worker classes, unless you count six years of secretarial experience as "skilled" work.

No, I'm not establishing a new commercial enterprise.

No, neither me, my spouse, nor parents are from CHINA, COLOMBIA, DOMINICAN REPUBLIC, EL SALVADOR, HAITI, INDIA, JAMAICA, MEXICO, PAKISTAN, PHILIPPINES, SOUTH KOREA, VIETNAM.

I have my high school diploma, so at least I managed to get a positive answer to one of their quesitons. However, I don't know whether I would be considered to be in a line of work where two years experience or training is necessary to perform the job - I assume by that they mean formal trades that require apprenticeships, not admin assistant work. So I hit "no" for that one.

So at the end of it all, not only did I feel pretty insignificant , but I figured the test result would say something like, "Get lost, you knob, as if we don't have enough unskilled workers here already!"

But no. Here's what I got:

quote:

---

Congratulations! You are eligible to apply for a U.S. Permanent Visa (Green Card) through the following program(s):

Immigration through employment

Immigration through the Diversity Lottery

---

Snerk. That Diversity Lottery seems to me like basically a last-chance thing for people who don't qualify in any other way. But I was shocked to discover that even with my extremely low qualifications, I could qualify for immigration through employment.

The problem with the exchange visitor visa is that it is run by the State Dept. The State Dept. says that the INS has the forms and info, and the INS says that State has it (websites).

grrrrr.....

To answer your question Michelle, if you're a Canadian citizen then you don't need a visa unless it's for more than (I think) 6 months.

But the exchange visitor visa application process is a royal PITA.

[Edited to add:]

I should have specified that I don't need, nor will I be provided documentation for a student visa per se. The program that I am attending falls under the purview of the "Exchange Visitors Program" which is the J-1 visa.

[ 26 April 2003: Message edited by: SamL ]